Were you at Anfield in May 1995?

[roverandout]

2 hours ago, Herbie6590 said:

I posted a video on YT of the celebrations on the Monday...

 

 

Yes it was the Monday night. I always kept thinking it was the night we won it. I remember going with my mum sister and neices and brother in law 

[Hasta]

22 minutes ago, wilsdenrover said:

After the match I remember being in Salvador Dali’s and The Moorings and can only assume I frequented other establishments along the way.

We ended up in the Moorings. Police came in at about 10.20pm and said they didn’t have to close Sunday hours as they didn’t want everyone spilling onto the streets at the same time.

[Billinge End Blue]

Me and several mates somehow got away end tickets for Anfield via an official supporter branch connection (hope this doesn't start a ticket scandal a la Wembley 1960). We got to the Anfield area early on in two taxis and had several stress-busting pints in the nearby cosy King Charles pub. The locals were very hospitable, welcoming us and hoping Rovers would  win to get 3 points to stop ManU. The game was a fantastic blur and we got back to the Woodlands on Preston New Rd straight afterwards. Remember the euphoria, fans dancing in the street, sex in public (not me disappointingly) and waves of celebration as the pub got more and more packed...amazing memories. As it goes, we've seen things they'll never see...

Venkys Must Go

[Gav]

7 hours ago, SIMON GARNERS 194 said:

Couldn't get a Ticket,not a chance.Had to celebrate back at Ewood during that Looonnng Evening!.

Unbelievable Scenes,the stuff of Dreams,everyone pushing in the right direction together,THE pride of Lancashire.

Wonder how many Rovers fans there that day still follow the Club though?....

 

Been home and away for decades, couldnt get a ticket either, my fault to be honest, to many day trippers.

But didn't sour the celebrations, the car that run me and 20 people over did, but what a day 😉

[steelcityblue]

I was there. Mate from Sheffield worked for a record company and that seemed to open doors for tickets at most grounds. Don’t to this day know how that worked. Anyway we had tickets in with the Liverpool fans on the side near the away end. Remember Shearer’s goal arrowing in from the edge of the area and Redknapp looking sheepish when he scored. His free kick was right in front of us. My heart sank and my head was in my hands. Then the away end went ballistic and I realised we were champions. Turns out there were several Rovers fans in the same section as we all went mental. Liverpool fans quite happy to let us celebrate. Seeing the team, Kenny, Tony and Jack on the pitch lifting the trophy was priceless. The finest unbelievable achievement of our extraordinary town team. A dream come true. Thank you Uncle Jack. Best club owner ever. ….How far we have fallen. Had a few beers and don’t remember much about the journey back to Sheffield. Shout out to Ian Leach who got the tickets, drove me there  and helped me into my house when we got back. Happy days!

 

[rog of the rovers]

Love these stories. Far more interesting 30 years on than hearing about “a night at the Bistro French” and the well trodden tales.

Those players have come and gone whilst most fans remain. Gives us a chance to remember those Roverites no longer with us.

Together we celebrated that glorious day.

For the record I too was at my grandparents (they had Sky) and frantically asked my dad what he meant when he said “yeah but it doesn’t matter” as Redknapp scored the winner.

Cue the celebrations at school, in the town and the Monday night at Ewood, where I stood on my seat as the players paraded the trophy around the ground. Where my dad leant into me and said “take this in Roger, this will never happen again”.

Edited Monday at 23:58 by rog of the rovers

[K-Hod]

I was 11, so didn't get on the beers. Watched it in my front room, then ran over to the park across the road to celebrate with other blue and white children in the area. 

I thought that title win would be one of many, so I didn't savour it nearly enough.

Oh to be young! 😅.

[Ossydave]

If you’re mid 40’s upwards you then like myself I genuinely think we got very lucky indeed growing up supporting the club when we did. League and cup wins, promotions, watching our team in Europe multiple times. Watching some ridiculously good players like Shearer, the list goes on and on. In addition, life in general in this area was much better, the nightlife was spot on, people travelling from miles around to attend dance events that will go down in history. 
 

I think that’s partly why people around this age and above have an added level of hatred for those rats in Pune and the vermin they’ve brought anywhere near our club.

I hope for my kids sakes we rise again but I won’t be taking my youngest much as things stand, she plays football and has all the good stuff coached into her, she doesn’t need to witness the poisonous mess at Ewood for now. 
 

My dad had some VHS footage of the homecoming and Ewood as he was in the box Philips had, I need to get him to dust that off and convert it.

[arbitro]

13 hours ago, Herbie6590 said:

I posted a video on YT of the celebrations on the Monday...

 

 

I actually refereed this match. I got a call from John Newsham who was the stadium manager on the Friday before asking me to referee it but he swore me to secrecy in case the results went against us. When we were on the pitch pre match the photographers were swarming around Kenny Dalglish so he came up to me and said "get this game started so I can get rid of these f****** ". He actually injured a hamstring in the game and had to have treatment from the them physio Steve Foster.

We were given tickets to the post match celebrations in one of the lounges and all my family came along too. The players were in joyous mood probably helped by non stop drinking from the day before. I had a spare ticket and when we were going in David Batty was arguing with the doormen who wouldn't let him in. He was losing his head so I gave him the spare ticket to get in. 

The celebrations went on long into the night and no doubt carried on for a few days after that.

[windymiller7]

I was at University in Liverpool at the time & the build up in the city in the few days beforehand was quite strange/unbelievable really with shops selling out of any Rovers related scarves/shirts etc, not that there was a plethora of stuff in the first place, but still.

A couple of my best mates there were both Liverpool fans, one a ST holder the other a more casual Anfield goer. Anyway, we couldn't get tickets through the usual sources so all 3 of us went to Anfield with only one having a ticket, the other 2 of us decided we'd try & get tickets outside off a tout.

One guy approached us, sold us '2 tickets', we handed over the cash & he gave us an envelope with 'tickets' for the Kop. Buzzing, we started making our way to the stand, opened the envelope only to find that the 'tickets' were in fact 2 of the spare vouchers you used to get in the back of ST books. Bastard!!

As we were stood there swearing about having been scammed a guy came up to us and said he'd just heard what had happened and that he had 2 spare tickets and only wanted face value for them, they were originally for his daughter and her boyfriend who now couldn't make it and we'd be sat next to him in the Main Stand. A tout overheard this and came steaming over offering this guy over the face value for them. To his credit this bloke turned to him and just said "fuck off, I'm talking to these lads.

We gave the bloke the cash, he passed us the tickets and we set off for the turnstiles. My other mate, was just heading off to take up his seat in the Centenary stand when he called me back, took off his Liverpool scarf, put it around my neck & grabbed mine and put is around his, so there we were stood outside Anfield, I've got my Rovers shirt on with a Liverpool scarf and he's got his Liverpool top on with a Rovers scarf. Amazing to think that could actually happen.

I'll be honest, other than Shearer's opening goal, the game is a bit of a blur, the celebrations were incredible though.

After the game, I went back to the Halls of Residence bar & the first guy I saw as I walked in was a lad wearing a West Ham shirt. I tapped him on the shoulder and just said "I think I owe you a pint mate, what are you having?"

Great times!

[Mercer]

A day etched in the memory bank for ever.

Offered a place in a corporate box but wanted to really soak in the atmosphere.  Fortunately, the company concerned got me a ticket in the Liverpool fans' side of the AR stand - some great craic with the scousers.  After the presentations etc, went back up to the box for eats and a couple of glasses of bubbly.

Sadly, missed the Ewood celebrations on the Monday night as I had a flight to catch. 

Seen Rovers lift 2 'major' trophies (PL at Anfield & League Cup at Cardiff) and very much doubt I will see Rovers lift another.  Feel very lucky and privileged.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

4 hours ago, Ossydave said:

If you’re mid 40’s upwards you then like myself I genuinely think we got very lucky indeed growing up supporting the club when we did. League and cup wins, promotions, watching our team in Europe multiple times. Watching some ridiculously good players like Shearer, the list goes on and on. In addition, life in general in this area was much better, the nightlife was spot on, people travelling from miles around to attend dance events that will go down in history. 
 

 

''Boom Town'....a perfect summation of the time.

[oneandycrawford]

15 hours ago, roverandout said:

Yes it was the Monday night. I always kept thinking it was the night we won it. I remember going with my mum sister and neices and brother in law 

My mum came with me and my dad on the Monday night. Only her 2nd time at Ewood and 3rd time 'watching' Rovers. 1st time at Ewood was to get me a voucher for a cup tie ticket!

[Paul Mellelieu]

Tears rolling down my face reading these memories.  Here's mine.

 

This was a time before Sunday pub opening hours being extended, so I watched it in my trade union bar, bang in the centre of Manchester.  The bar was packed with United fans, me and a few of my City-supporting mates (the irony).  The barman, City fan, claimed he couldn't the United game on, do made the 100-odd United fans watch Rovers.  I was legging it to the loo every five minutes once the game started, and during one of my trips Shearer scored!!!!! By halftime I couldn't stand the tension and left the bar, radio to my ear to be on my own.  I paced around the city centre until Alan Green proclaimed us champions.  Cue celebrations with my mates as the United fans traipsed out into the Peter St sunlight.  

The night after me and my girlfriend (now wife) sat in the Darwen End with a middle aged women shouting "Killer" throughout.  Wonderful.

I think favourite memory is all the terraced houses on Bolton Road having scarves, improvised posters and newspaper headlines displayed on their front windows.

For once our small town was king.  

And then we messed up.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

1 hour ago, Paul Mellelieu said:

And then we VENKYS messed up.

Lets have it right.

[MarkBRFC]

Think as a club we did mess up a bit after winning the league, a bit too much loyalty shown to the side who lets be honest limped over the line at the end.

That summer for me we were crying out for some strength in the key positions. A new centre half, a central midfielder, a left winger and a striker were musts to keep us challenging.

No reason why we couldn't have gone on and got a couple more league titles and maybe a domestic cup or two in the rest of the 90's.

Obviously by the time oil money came in we would no doubt have slid down the league anyway looking at the top 6 as our ceiling much like we did from 01-10 before these idiots came in.

Grateful for what we witnessed, but a real missed opportunity to take it a bit further I think.

Edited Tuesday at 14:43 by MarkBRFC

[Paul Mellelieu]

20 minutes ago, SIMON GARNERS 194 said:

Lets have it right.

Erm, we didn't sign anyone, we finished six, got relegated......

[rossyste]

I was fortunate enough to be there in with the Rovers fan with a whole bunch of Helmshore Blues, we left Haslingden at the crack of dawn and visited many hostelries on Walton Breck Road before the match. I think some of the Liverpool fans were more nervous than we were ! After the match I remember buying a Rovers Champions T Shirt from a very switched on street vendor before we "requested" our minibus driver found the nearest off license. Chaos ensued on the drive home and my abiding memory was after we left the M6 at Chorley and made our way through Wheelton, Withnell and Feniscowles there were hundreds and hundreds of Rovers fans at the side of the road waving scarfs, flags etc. We made our way into Blackburn and my last very drunken memory was sat on the floor opposite King Georges Hall eating a kebab with people asking me where I had got my T Shirt from 🙂

Happy Times 

 

[Moptop1]

Was at the game.

The night before the game, was drinking in St Paul Club and was offered £500 for both my tickets. Simple answer was no. Wasn’t up for discussion. This was a once in a lifetime experience. Something I thought I’d never have again, being a Rover.

Day of the game, nervous as hell. Couldn’t drink anything as felt too sick with worry.

Turn out ok though, didn’t it?😉

[Songman]

Genuinely got emotional reading this thread. What a time to be a blue. 

The emotion turned to anger though, it breaks my heart to think that any kid of high school age hasnt seen us in the top flight. 

Hate what these w@nk3rs have done to the club.

[Herbie6590]

3 hours ago, MarkBRFC said:

Think as a club we did mess up a bit after winning the league, a bit too much loyalty shown to the side who lets be honest limped over the line at the end.

That summer for me we were crying out for some strength in the key positions. A new centre half, a central midfielder, a left winger and a striker were musts to keep us challenging.

No reason why we couldn't have gone on and got a couple more league titles and maybe a domestic cup or two in the rest of the 90's.

Obviously by the time oil money came in we would no doubt have slid down the league anyway looking at the top 6 as our ceiling much like we did from 01-10 before these idiots came in.

Grateful for what we witnessed, but a real missed opportunity to take it a bit further I think.

I still theorise in a quiet moment that had SGE actually turned up at Ewood, we’d have had at least one more…

[Paul Mellelieu]

SGE?

 

[rigger]

5 minutes ago, Paul Mellelieu said:

SGE?

 

Sven Goran Erikson.

[simongarnerisgod]

6 hours ago, Moptop1 said:

Was at the game.

The night before the game, was drinking in St Paul Club and was offered £500 for both my tickets. Simple answer was no. Wasn’t up for discussion. This was a once in a lifetime experience. Something I thought I’d never have again, being a Rover.

Day of the game, nervous as hell. Couldn’t drink anything as felt too sick with worry.

Turn out ok though, didn’t it?😉

i too could`nt drink anything,watching in the pub my pint of thwaites smooth lasted me all game🙂

[GHR]

This has been a wonderful read for someone who was alive at the time but far too young to experience any of it. I have seen all the footage from the match and all the subsequent interviews and documentaries and whatever, but seldom if ever read about it from the fans' point of view. Thanks all.